Port Orchard, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Port Orchard, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Port Orchard lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Port Orchard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Port Orchard — the short answer
Port Orchard, Washington: USDA zone 9a, about 285 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 15
- Kitsap County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Kitsap County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~285
- Kitsap County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 6K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Kitsap County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Port Orchard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Port Orchard's 285-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Port Orchard
Each reading below is measured for Port Orchard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPort Orchard runs about 285 days between hard freezes (read from Kitsap County, the closest normal to Port Orchard) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPort Orchard sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Port Orchard is in
Port Orchard sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Port Orchard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kitsap County.
What Grows in Port Orchard
Every plant below cleared Port Orchard's own zone 9a and its 285-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Port Orchard?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Port Orchard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Port Orchard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHELL BAY ST PORT ORCHARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 24N/01E-26K01Nitrate · 1500 ft
- PORT OF BREMERTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- KITSAP COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SOUTH KITSAP HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1700 ft
- PORTORCHARD219Brownfields · 1700 ft
- MY GOODS MARKET #5402Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- COOKSONS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MARINA MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PORT ORCHARD MALL USTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CHEVRON 91253Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Port Orchard's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Port Orchard.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Port Orchard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Port Orchard
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Port Orchard, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Port Orchard — PFAS (10 sites) and Superfund (15 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Port Orchard
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Port Orchard average
Your land is one point inside Port Orchard
Everything above resolves to Port Orchard as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kitsap County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Port Orchard Average
Port Orchard Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Port Orchard
- ●One soil character for all of Port Orchard
- ●Frost dates read at Port Orchard's scale: Feb 15 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Port Orchard's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Port Orchard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Port Orchard, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Port Orchard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Port Orchard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Port Orchard average
How we know this about Port Orchard
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Kitsap County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Port Orchard
When does frost risk typically end in Port Orchard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Port Orchard typically lands around Feb 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Mar 8.
When is the first frost in Port Orchard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Port Orchard typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 285 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Port Orchard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Port Orchard sees about 285 frost-free days — roughly Feb 15 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 8 to Nov 13, about 250 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Port Orchard?
The federal record around Port Orchard runs heavier than most — 690 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (360), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Port Orchard?
From about Oct 28 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Port Orchard's scale — its 9a band and its 285-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Port Orchard's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Port Orchard’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Port Orchard's own scale — the 6,172 acres it covers and 690 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Port Orchard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 690 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Port Orchard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Port Orchard's boundary and the 6,172 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~285-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Port Orchard's own centroid, the Puget LowlandUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Port Orchard has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Kitsap County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Port Orchard's 6,172 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kitsap County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kitsap County
- The growing challenges every Washington grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Washington
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Kitsap County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Port Orchard's 6,172 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Port Orchard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,172 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Port Orchard-wide figureread your own land →